The Brain-dead

“So you are a scientist?” he continued the informal introduction to continue the talk. Normally, people like to talk, even with strangers, when they are alone.

“Yes, I am.” I replied.

“So, what is your area of specialization?” now, he wants to assert himself.

“Drugs.” My briefest possible answer.

“Ohh”

“Do you know something about drugs?” my enquiry.

“Not much just heard about them in films. What kind of drugs you work on?”

“I am actually working on the drug which is yet undefined, I am planning to name it as ‘Braine-dead’.”

“OK.”

“This drugs is found everywhere in the world. India has also faced many consequences even from the days before the days of British raj. But, earlier it was found in patches. After independence, it was in 1947 when the entire country had faced negative consequences of this drug.”

“If it’s so old then why there is no good research available on this Drug? I haven’t heard of any such drug.”

“Exactly, that is the ultimate strength of the Drug and that is why it has been so fatal and killed thousands of innocent people.”

“You are lying, I haven’t heard of any such massacre due to any drug. I haven't read it either in any newspaper or History book, no such news has been broadcast on TV or radio.”

“You know, everything is not and cannot be disclosed to general public for the security reasons.”

“Even if it’s not true, I would like to know further. What is the effect of this Drug on Humans that you are working on?”

The Human may not remain a Human after the considerable consumption of this Drug. However, they will be alive.”

“You mean to say that people will turn into “Zombies”. Ridiculous… Mr. Scientist we are not talking about some movie. You are claiming that such incidents took place in India before and after the independence of our country.”

“Of course, they are not Zombies. Zombies are dead humans, who are alive because of the living part of their brain, while these brain-dead are very much alive people but they have lost their capacity to use their brain. You cannot differentiate them from normal humans.”

“Oh interesting!! But, you claimed that the effects of this Drug was visible plenty of time in India..”

“Yes, the first Nation-wide effect was visible in 1947, then in 1967, 1984, 1992, 2002, 2006, 2012-13, and the smaller incidents are innumerable.”

“Oh my God!!! You seem to have the entire history and nobody else knows about it.”

“Yes, the area is significantly neglected.”

“OK”, he said sarcastically, “can I visit your laboratory? I would love to see the evidences.”

“Not possible.”

“Why? Is there no evidence?”

“No, there is no laboratory and it’s not even possible.”

“Why is that?”

“Haven’t you herd ‘Gujarat is our laboratory’? How was it possible? When you work on society, your society is your laboratory.”

“Ohh. But that was a political stunt. Yours is not any stunt, you claimed to be scientific, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. What does science require?”

“Evidences,” he thought for a while and replied.

“Don’t you think, there is only one possibility to get the evidences, and that is in the society itself?”

“OK. So what kinds of evidences you are looking forward to?”

“The same, as I told you before. I am collecting the evidences for the drugs ‘Brain-dead’ and its everlasting impacts on individuals and society at large.”

“You seem to know lot of things about this drug, then why don’t you publish about it, and assert your thesis?”

“There is one problem with the actual execution of this drug. It is ineffective if it is not given cautiously.” He could read dejection of my face.

“And what is that?”

“The Drugs need to have base in another drug.”

“I think, it is making sense now. I recall a famous statement by Karl Marx, ‘Religion is a Drug for the Common-man’.”

And we both smiled, but I know that avoiding side-effects of this drug is not practically possible, because it is steeped into the base of politics.